Plastic trim rubbing off paint

Off topic: I did replace both of my valences with 4Runner Lifestyle black valances. Front did not require bumper removal but was frustrating.

Related topic: A chip of paint flaked off my rear bumper around the left tail light when I removed the bumper. I really do not like this paint at all. Had to order touchup paint and touch up that chip.

How long did it take you to do the rear garnish, including disassembly and reassembly?

 

Those silicon plate holder seem like a bad idea.. if you get some dirt/sand particles stuck in there, the silicon will hold it in place and grind the paint down, no?

 

I've wondered the same thing. I think next weekend I'm going to put strips of ppf around the edges of the silicone plate just to be safe.

 

I put 3m ppf where my metal plate holder…touches the paint.

it’s hilarious these stupid things we have to do.. the 4r is becoming the car equivalent of:

 

Mine is great on my 2024 Offroad. The back is solid silicone so there could never be any metal-to-paint contact. The license plate bolts hold the top tight against the little outdents for the bolts, forming a soft washer between the plate and the outdents. At the bottom, Toyota installed two small squares of rubber that attach to the paint, which spaces the plate and the plate holder out about 1/8" spaced away from the paint. So the only two contact points are the outdents behind the bolts, and those are tight with silicone between the paint and rubber. All good.

 

Agreed. Again, I blame the paint. The paint on my FJ Cruiser was never this brittle and chip-prone. Another item that really annoyed me last week: the entire bottom of the cargo area is a sheet of styrofoam. Every other car/SUV I have had has used some sort of hard material there like fiberboard to form a smooth surface. I put a heavy object in the brand new 4R last week and now have a nice dent in the foam and carpet. In addition, I had the 4R fully undercoated and also sprayed 3M cavity wax all inside the frame. I doubt there will ever be any type of rust issue under there even if/when I move north.

 

About 5 hours. I had 2 bolts spin inside the garnish, one of which was in the worst location. I ended up having to cut the bolt. The bolts spinning also broke my garish but I j-b welded it. If I ever have to take it off again, if I even can, I imagine I'll have to buy a new garnish.

If you are going to remove it, I would recommend having extra bolts for sure. I had to put vise grips on the two spinning bolts and ended up replacing them. I also installed a new liftgate finish panel clip and replaced one of the retainer clips.

 

Video for anyone who needs it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AX0cmOBai4

 

I am considering going the black valance route after running our stock TRD ORP for a while. I have read that some members paint their existing valances. Do you plan on reselling your oem ones to offset the cost?

Also, I did notice a small rock chip on the front driver side bumper on our white 2024 (only 685 miles). I did consider doing PPF when we first bought it and had it parked, but the cost and having to replace around the 7 year mark turned me of. I plan on just enjoying the truck for what it is, using touch-up paint, and re-painting if it gets pretty bad over the years. Did you buy oem paint from Toyota?

I've been following this thread. Thanks for your input

 

I am hoping that the 4Runner Lifestyle black plastic will be more durable than paint. I didn't want to pay for the OEM parts.

I looked on ebay and they don't seem to be worth a whole lot due to the number of people who have done the swap plus very high shipping costs. They are large parts.

Ugh. My white 2024 OR now has 700 miles.

Yes due to the large quantity of fake stuff on the market. Ordered online through my dealer's parts department and got a nice discount for ordering online. Picked it up a week later for no shipping costs. About $10.

 

Wondering if anyone under warranty has had a chat with Toyota to see if they have a proper fix for this? It seems strange that some do not have the issue. I see some very old 4runners that look fine. I am guessing there is a gasket difference?

 

Had my tailgate sand blasted and painted last week. Talked to the body shop guy about the washer step-out or ppf for under the garnish. Ended up going with 3M tape. Doesn't look as good as other solutions, but will prevent the issue from happening again and the hatch handle has never felt as solid.

 

How does 3m tape make the handle feel solid?

 

Placebo effect and likely half a millimeter less flex when pulling up the tailgate I'm guessing.

 

There are spots where mine touches and spots where it does not touch. The Scotch 2228 will compress slightly to give full and confident contact all around and a solid feel I expect.

The Scotch 2228 as applied to the paint in post 176 is the answer I think. That solution should last forever. Appearance will be as good as the installer's patience. I haven't done mine yet.

 

Nice. It bothers me that Toyota calls this part a garnish, when it's really a door handle and a weak one at that.
I don't walk up to my 4runner and gently push a garnish button and then reach elsewhere to lift the tailgate. I reef the handle in good sense, and if it breaks I blame Toyota.

 

Thought I'd post this pic, saw it at my dealer on the showroom floor, 2024 Limited. It has the proper gap from the factory. I'm waiting for a Solar Octane TRD OR that should be here in 2 or 3 weeks so I'm interested to see if it has the gap or not. A 2023 PRO in Solar Octane the dealer had on the lot had the garnish physically touching the paint and you could see it had started to damage the paint.

 

It's not just the tips though. It seems to rub through the paint all around, although the tips are where I have seen the deep chipping due to impact/vibration.

I currently have my liftgate apart for speaker replacement. I'll be doing the garnish while I have it apart, although I do not look forward to taking it off.

 

Picked up my 2024 Solar Octane Off Road earlier this week and this is what corners look like. Better than the corners on my old 2021 Nautical Blue Off Road I traded in before it was fixed under warranty.

 

How is that suppose to be good? Looks like it’s touching

 

The hard plastic isn't touching the paint unlike on my old 2021, just the gasket material. Really hard to get a picture of it.

 

That's what the corners of mine looked like but when I removed the garnish, it had been rubbing the paint off in just about every other area.

 

Well, I'm scheduled for PPF full front install in a few weeks. I'm planning on doing some car stereo stuff and will remove the rear hatch to bypass the rear speakers. While I'm there, I plan on removing the garnish to have the underside paint exposed. I'm going to have the shop put a layer of Xpel under the garnish and I'll button it back up with the fixes in this thread. Hopefully this will avoid the issue for me. Thanks to his forum for letting me about an issue I didn't know I would run into.

 

I just checked my 2023 Solar Octane and sure enough the right side of the garnish has rubbed the paint off. The left looked fine.

 

God damn tahara workers.

they say these final years of a generation encompasses all of their learnings. I ought to be the best model years.

I think this also works the other way. These Toyota monkies just don’t give a f anymore.. The 5g 4Runner assembly line reaching end of life.. no ROI for fixing bad process. Shaking my fist at the YouTube body gap checker guy

 

Yikes! I hope Toyota corrects this for you... On my 2024, I'm going to pull my garnish off and treat that area with PPF and hope for the best.

 

There seem to be two types of problems. 1) Rubbing, and 2) Impact chipping. The example by @MooreKen seems to be chipping, which I suspect is caused when the tips of the garnish flex and slam into the paint, which I know from experience is extremely brittle and prone to chipping. Many other garnish photo examples don't look like deep, jagged chips but instead look like smooth wear from constant rubbing due to vibration, and it tends to occur in multiple spots not just at the tips.

 

Wonder if chipping could be from pushing down on the garnish when closing the tailgate, compressing the foam adhesive.

 

I have speculated that the force of slamming the tailgate, which can be quite hard, might cause the tips of the garnish to flex and come in contact with the paint, causing the chipping. Until I can get mine apart I'm closing it very gently by hand and not pushing on the garnish. I have the tailgate interior apart right now to replace the speakers, but I haven't gotten to the garnish yet.

Note: I see that removing the two metal plates onto which the tailgate speakers mount opens up large, easy access to the back side of the garnish. It's only three 10mm bolts per side to pull the speaker mounting plates.

Off topic but of interest while things are apart: I was going to bypass the tailgate speakers, but I decided to bypass the rear door speakers instead. The rear fill effect is much better coming from the tailgate than from the back doors, which are too close to the ear and which drop the soundstage to the floor. These adapters fit perfectly: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120828148/Metra-82-8148-Speaker-Mounting-Brackets.html Get them free by telling Crutchfield that your new 6.5" speakers are for a 2016 Subaru Legacy Sedan. Still working on correcting the horrid frequency response of the rear channels. Can be done with a high cut R-C filter in parallel with each speaker to drop the treble by 6 to 9 dB above 2kHz.

 

Can you pay some pics of the interior of the hatch, where the garnish attaches?